Hong Kong Finance Worker Wires $25 Million to Scammers After Deepfake Video Call

In late January 2024, Hong Kong Police Force disclosed that a multinational's Hong Kong office had been defrauded of HK$200 million (approximately US$25.6 million) by scammers who used real-time deepfake video to impersonate the company's CFO and multiple senior staff in a Zoom-style meeting with a junior finance clerk. The clerk had been suspicious of an initial phishing email, but the live video call — featuring lifelike rendered avatars of colleagues she recognised — convinced her to authorise the 15 wire transfers. The case became the largest single-incident deepfake financial fraud reported at the time, and prompted the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and the Mainland's banking regulators to issue specific deepfake-fraud advisories to financial institutions.